Sen. Orrin Hatch Tells Tea Party: 'I'm Impressed'

The Tea Party came to the nation's capital Tuesday evening, but it wasn't a big, noisy rally on the mall.

It was a small event, in a cramped conference room holding barely a hundred people at a Washington Institution, the National Press Club downtown.

The event was sponsored by the Tea Party Express, one of the largest Tea Party organizations in the country. It was billed, too, as the movements first ever televised town hall where activists could question a panel made up of members of Congress.

What made the panel interesting is that it included a six-term U.S. Senator who is not a Tea Party favorite.

In fact, he hadn't even been invited. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) called organizers to ask if he could come. They said "yes."

On some key Tea Party issues, Hatch is right in line with the movement. He says government spending needs to be slashed. That the U.S. needs a balanced budget amendment. And he called the new health care law "terrible" and a "monstrosity" that will "cost an arm and a leg".

He described the White House and the Democrats in Congress as "arrogant" in the way they got the bill passed.